Strategies used with intrusive thoughts: A comparison of OCD patients withanxious and community controls

Models of intrusive thoughts attribute a key role to strategies used by peo ple to cope with their unwanted cognitions. In an extension of previous wor k, the authors conducted structured interviews with 38 people with obsessiv e-compulsive disorder, 38 people with another anxiety disorder, and 19 heal thy volunteers. The interview identified the repertoire of strategies used with the participant's most troubling thought. The 2 clinical groups report ed significantly more strategies than the nonclinical group. The clinical g roups also reported significantly greater intensity of the thought and thei r emotional response and lower efficacy for the strategies. People with OCD reported a significantly higher proportion of strategies that were specifi cally linked to the thought content (as distinct from nonspecific strategie s that were only linked sequentially in time). The results identify both co mmon and differential characteristics of intrusive cognition in anxiety dis orders.